Here’s a piece in the Rio Grande Guardian by my one-time history professor Char Miller that’s worth your time to read:
Today is World Water Day, a U.N.-sponsored event that is an ideal time for communities to strategize about their future water needs.
For San Antonio (and South Texas), this year’s theme–Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge–could not be more appropriate. Globally and locally, rapid urbanization is intensifying pressure on the capacity of metropolitan regions to insure all people’s access to potable water.
Compared to mega-cities such as Lagos or Mumbai, San Antonio seems to be in ok shape. Few express disquiet that a city whose population has doubled since the 1980s, and is still absorbing more water-hungry souls, might be in jeopardy. As for its continued dependence on what is essentially a single source of water, the Edwards Aquifer, how bad can that be?
Click the link to find the answer. Water rights, and the fight for access to water between cities and rural areas in Texas, is already a big deal, and will continue to be so. Water conservation is a big part of the puzzle, but San Antonio already does pretty well on that point. There’s still more for it to do to keep up with its growing population and their need for the wet stuff.
2 things.
1. I read somewhere that every American consumes 100 gallons of water per day, about 95 of which goes to cool coal/gas/nuclear plants.
2. Harris and Bexar County were ranked as at extreme risk of drought and water shortages as a result of climate change. http://climateprogress.org/2010/07/21/global-warming-water-shortage-drought-nrdc-report/
It’s vital that we make the connection between the water problem and climate change.